Semiotic Aspects of Sound and Music in Science-fiction Films

Author(s): Traian Penciuc / Language(s): English Issue: 28/2015

The development of the sound playback technology has changed the way sound is used in the structure of the film. In addition, the public has become more refined and no longer accepts a mechanical sound rendering. Altered by effects, the sound is called to reinforce the fiction proposed by the image, changing the perception of space and movement, but also highlighting subjective points of view. However, it is always claimed that it should have diegetic fidelity. In the case of science-fiction films, this “fidelity” has specific aspects. First, there are unknown sounds of objects or phenomena, which are supposed to be imagined, created. Nevertheless, particularly in science-fiction these sounds must, to some degree, match the scientific description of the phenomenon they represent, or at least, a popular perception of these scientific theories. Thus results a pseudo-iconicity of sound and music in science-fiction films, which this paper will study.

“I get it, but it’s just not funny”:

Author(s): Adrian Hale / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2018

Failed humour can be explained by communicative gaps, at either the semantic or pragmatic levels, but sometimes, after all is ‘said and done’, people resist humour for purely discursive reasons. Some may recognise the divisive nature of a humorous text, and experience conflicting feelings. Others may welcome humour purely because of its appeal to ideology, while the text itself may not be considered as being very funny. Then there are people who ‘go along with the joke’ purely to avoid losing face. Political humour is a site of great power, where the stakes are high. For example, Donald Trump rejected Baldwin’s SNL parody, finding his ‘alter ego’ “unwatchable” and “not funny”. Other politicians, and members of the public, however, choose to respond to political humour in diverse ways. The reception of humour, therefore, is more complex than it appears. We might resist humour because of a deficiency in linguistic competence, but we might also resist humour because of literacy competence. This paper will theorise that there exists a ‘default setting’ in a person’s discourse, such that when encountering an instance of humour, we all employ a Discursive Defence Mechanism (DDM), and that there are ‘triggers’ which provoke this DDM.

Why are you amused:

Author(s): Qiaoyun Chen,Guiying Jiang / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2018

This paper looks at multimodal humour through the lens of prototype theory in the framework of conventional incongruity theory of humour, aiming for a unified linguistic and semiotic approach to humour. From this perspective, humour can be achieved through the following three aspects of linguistic and non-linguistic categories: 1) prototypicality versus nonprototypicality of category members; 2) the family resemblance shared by category members; 3) vague inter-categorical boundary. The cognitive mechanisms behind this type of multimodal humour and its comprehension are discussed. The intermodal relationships involved are examined and categorised into two major types: complementary and noncomplementary ones.

Investigating the potential of humour in EFL classrooms:

Author(s): Talip Gonulal / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2018

Studies on humour have indicated that humour has a lot to offer to both language teachers and learners. Creating a positive classroom environment and lowering affective barriers to language learning are among the several effects of humour. However, the appreciation of humour can be culture-specific and context-dependent. For example, greater values may lie in the employment of humour in English as a foreign language (EFL) settings such as Turkey where the communicative-oriented teaching methods are still in their infancy stage. The current study, therefore, examined the potentials of humour from Turkish EFL learners’ perspective to elicit their opinions regarding the importance and potent roles of humour in EFL classrooms. In this attitudinal study, a mixed-methods design was used. A comprehensive humour perception questionnaire and semi-structured interviews were employed. Two hundred and fifty college EFL students completed the humour survey and eight of them participated in the follow-up interviews. The results indicated that Turkish college-level EFL students have largely positive attitudes towards using humour in English classrooms. Additionally, students considered humour as an effective pedagogical tool that can increase their attentiveness, attention span, confidence in English classrooms, and teacher-student solidarity, as well.

Oбиждам те (се) – параметри на обидата и вербалната агресия в училище

Author(s): Nadezhda Stalyanova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 3/2021

The article examines the manifestations of verbal aggression among students and draws attention to one aspect of it – the insulting words as a component of aggressive human behavior. The study is based on surveys conducted in 19 schools across Bulgaria. A classification of offensive vocabulary has been made. The study registers global trends in modern society, asking questions to psychologists, teachers, sociologists, namely – can aggression be prevented, transformed into a constructive type of behavior, whether the individual could affect the hostile environment etc.

More-than-Human Game Design: Playing in the Internet of Things

Author(s): Haider Ali Akmal,Paul Coulton / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2021

The design of objects requiring human interaction of ten revolves around methods such as Human Centred Design (HCD). Whilst this is beneficial in many cases, contemporary developments of technology such as the Internet of Things (IoT), which produce assemblages of interactions, lead to the view that human centred approaches can prove problematic leading to the proposal of adopting more-than-human perspectives. This study discusses the creation of a novel board game designed to explore a more-than-human design view for IoT products and services by addressing problematic issues in relation to user data privacy and security within the IoT which arguably arise from the application of traditional HCD approaches. By embracing Object-Oriented Philosophy, The Internet of Things Board Game creates an ontographic mapping of IoT assemblages and illuminates the tiny ontologies of unique interactions occurring within these digital and physical networked spaces. Here the gameplay acts as metaphorism illustrating independent and interdependent relationships between the various ‘things’ in the network. The study illustrate show critical game design can help develop potential new design approaches as well as enabling users to better understand the complex digital/physical assemblages they create when utilising IoT products and services in their everyday lives.

Difficulty as Aesthetic: An Investigation of the Expressiveness of Challenge in Digital Games

Author(s): Mateo Terrasa-Torres / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2021

Difficulty is the personal experience of a subject facing resistance that prevents them from reaching a goal or desired state. It is an experiential part of everyone’s existence. In digital games, difficulty is strongly linked with designed challenges and obstacles that must be overcome by physical effort, manual skills, coordination, and dexterity. But this widespread perspective is a reductionist categorization of the expressive possibilities of difficulty. Because as experiential, difficulty is aesthetic expression and therefore it is much more than the mere skill challenge. The difficulty experience that emerges from an opposing force between object and subject, between game and player, can be interpretive, poetic, narrative, ethical or atmospheric among other expressive forms. Understanding difficulty from these broad parameters, we pose it as an aesthetic expression, which forges multiple experiences at the intersection between mechanics, fiction, and the player’s performance. This study analyses, drawing from philosophy, postphenomenology, and game studies, some aspects of two contemporary games, The Last of Us Part II and Death Stranding from the view of difficulty as aesthetic experience perspective, considering the significant and discursive tensions beyond purely ludic and mechanical elements.

Editorial: laughter and humour in communication

Author(s): Sergey Troitskiy,Aleksandr Lavrentev,Alyona Ivanova,Liisi Laineste / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2021

The editorial article for the special issue of EJHR “Laughter and Humour in Communication” provides an overview of all the presented articles and highlightsthe general idea of the issue.

“Jonah’s gourd” and its early Byzantine interpretations

Author(s): Dmitry Kurdybaylo,Inga Kurdybaylo / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2021

Many modern scholars consider the Old Testament Book of Jonah being written in a boldly parodic manner. The narrative engages many details that sound humorous for a modern reader. However, from the standpoint of late Antique and early Medieval patristic exegesis, it is often unclear whether Byzantine interpreters perceived such passages laughable or at least inappropriate for a prophetic writing. This study presents a few examples of early Byzantine commentaries to the episode with Jonah and a gourd (Jonah 4:6–11). None of the commentaries expresses any explicit amusement caused by the discussed text. However, the style, method, or context of each commentary appears to be passing the traditional bounds of Bible interpretation. The earlier interpreters adhere to the most expected moral reading of Jonah 4, but they use epithets, metaphors, or omissions, which produce the effect of paradox comparable to the biblical wording itself. The later commentaries tend to involve unexpected and even provocative senses. In such interpretations, God can be thought of as being able to play with a human or even to fool and deceive. What seems us humorous in the Bible, Byzantine commentators take primarily as a paradox, which they did not explain or remove but elaborate further paradoxically. The later an interpreter is, the bolder his paradoxical approach appears. The results of the study provide some clues to understanding how the interpretation of humorous, parodic, or ironical passages were developing in the history of Byzantine intellectual culture.

Laughter in the context of urban soundscapes

Author(s): Daria Vasileva / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2021

Fifty people compiled diaries in which they described the sounds of their daily life in cities around the world. Of the 940 hours of observation there were 200 entries that referred to sounds of laughter, both live and recorded. The participants of the research always identified laughter sounds explicitly, unlike other urban sounds. The sound of laughter has a powerful cultural-symbolic superstructure. Learning how we use laughter, what we hear and how we react when someone laughs can help us to understand the key processes taking place in the urban space today. Laughter can at once attract and repel, signal danger and relieve social tension. It can lead equally to social agents’ inclusion and exclusion in the situation of interaction, and can largely determine the form and extent of their inclusion. A citizen’s interpretation of the sound of laughter depends directly on the media technologies which predominate in the urban environment and channel their cultural experience and sonic imagination.

Book review

Author(s): Annie Gerin / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2021

Book review

Author(s): Lina Molokotos-Liederman / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2021

The future of print media in the Republic of Serbia in the digital age (media-sociological aspect)

Author(s): Marko M. Nedeljković / Language(s): English,Serbian Issue: 2/2021

The constant decline in circulation, audience and print revenue, the development of a new culture of information, with the concurrent strengthening of online media, have led to the point where the transformation of print media has become inevitable. Therefore, in theoretical and professional discussions, the key question is how to respond to all changes and ensure the survival of print media outlets. In order to investigate this issue, a study based on the empirical method and the procedure of non-experimental research was conducted, which included five daily newspaper newsrooms in Serbia. The results show that new journalistic competencies are still present on a small scale in most newsrooms, that they are characterized by traditional work organization, as well as that they do not sufficiently involve new media professionals. These are also three key elements that hinder the transformation of print media and their adaptation to the digital age.

The progress of Australian humour in Britain

Author(s): Christie Davies / Language(s): English Issue: 4/2017

In this essay, reprinted from a 1997 collection, Christie Davies discussed the roots and the nature of Australian humour. The following article was first published as Davies, C. (1997). ‘The progress of Australian humour in Britain’, in Matte, G. and Milner Davis, J. (eds.), Readings from the International Conference on Humour (Australian Journal of Comedy 3:1). Sydney: University of New South Wales Press, pp. 15-32. It is reproduced with kind permission of NewSouth Publishing. With gratitude to Jessica Milner Davis for making this possible.

“Vivi Pericolosamente”:

Author(s): Delia Chiaro / Language(s): English Issue: 4/2017

This essay provides a brief overview of English jokes targeting Italians, and sets out to show how internet memes are a progression of traditional jokes in which Italians are the butts but with a modern twist.

Carabinieri?

Author(s): Giovannantonio Forabosco / Language(s): English Issue: 4/2017

Research was conducted using a series of light bulb jokes (Forabosco 1994). The original target of the jokes were the Poles, retargeted into “carabinieri” in Italy. A question is advanced: why carabinieri? An enlightening answer comes from comparative sociology.

The consolations of humour

Author(s): Elliott Oring / Language(s): English Issue: 4/2017

This examination of the corpus of anecdotes about the Mormon missionary J. Gordon Kimball (1953-1938), is used to point out, first, that there seem to be no substantive grounds for imputing aggressive motives to their tellers or their audiences. In fact, the central character of this corpus of anecdotes was a much beloved figure in his lifetime, and the character is still regarded with affection by many who only know him through the anecdotes The second point is that these jokes might offer compensations, but compensations unrelated to the release of and relief from libidinal forces. They rather can be understood in a way so that they may offer compensations of a different kind—the consolations of a philosophy.

Computational humour and Christie Davies’ basis for joke comparison

Author(s): Julia Taylor Rayz / Language(s): English Issue: 4/2017

While historically computational humour paid very little attention to sociology and mostly took into account subparts of linguistics and some psychology, Christie Davies wrote a number of papers that should affect the study of computational humour directly. This paper will look at one paper to illustrate this point, namely Christie’s chapter in the Primer of Humor Research. With the advancements in computational processing and big data analysis/analytics, it is becoming possible to look at a large collection of humorous texts that are available on the web. In particular, older texts, including joke materials, that are being scanned from previously published printed versions. Most of the approaches within computational humour concentrated on comparison of present/existing jokes, without taking into account classes of jokes that are absent in a given setting. While the absence of a class is unlikely to affect classification—something that researchers in computational humour seem to be interested in—it does come into light when features of various classes are compared and conclusions are being made. This paper will describe existing approaches and how they could be enhanced, thanks to Davies’ contributions and the advancements in data processing.

Humorous TV ads and the 3WD:

Author(s): Jennifer Hofmann,Willibald Ruch / Language(s): English Issue: 4/2017

Individuals differ in their appreciation of jokes and cartoons with respect to the structure of the humorous material (e.g., whether the jokes and cartoons are can be categorised in terms of incongruity-resolution or in terms of nonsense), as well as content (e.g., whether they contain sexual themes or not). While the 3WD (3 jokes dimensions) test allows for the measurement of such differences in a paper-pencil test of verbal jokes and visual cartoons, humour transported by other media, such as TV advertisements, has not been included so far. The current study aimed at assessing the appreciation of jokes and cartoons alongside the appreciation of humorous TV ads that were pre-categorized according to the structure and content factors of the 3WD. Moreover, relationships to personality and willingness to buy were also assessed. A sample of 134 adult participants completed the study. A joint factor analysis of the 3WD scores and humour appreciation in TV ads shows a five-factor structure, with three factors denominating the appreciation of incongruity-resolution humour, nonsense humour and sexual humour, a fourth factor denominating the liking of incongruity resolution humour with sexual themes (in both ads and jokes) and an advertisement specific factor. Thus, the 3WD dimensions can also be verified in humorous ads. Psychoticism and sensation seeking correlated negatively with the perceived funniness of incongruity resolution humour, replicating findings for the 3WD and additionally showing that the relationships are similar with respect to humour appreciation in TV advertisements. Moreover, the appreciation of humour predicted the willingness of the individual to buy the product or use the service. To conclude, the structure of humour appreciation is generalizable across media. Yet, there is also some advertisement specific variance and future studies may address the question of whether the 3WD covers all aspects of humour appreciation across media types. Moreover, knowing the target group of a product (and personality features of this group) may help to tailor the humour of the advertisement to match the “humour taste” of potential customers.

Book review

Author(s): Stanca Măda / Language(s): English Issue: 4/2017